Mayor: 35 dead in Texas fertilizer blast

West High School senior Mackenzie Wernet is embraced by fellow students after praying for the victims and survivors the day after the West Fertilizer Company explosion April 18, 2013, in West, Texas. Wernet's home was destroyed.
(Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)

WEST, Texas - About 35 people, including 10 first responders, were killed in the Texas fertilizer company explosion Wednesday night, West Mayor Tommy Muska said in an interview with USA TODAY.

The dead include five members of the West Volunteer Fire Department who were trying to put out the initial blaze, four EMS workers and an off-duty Dallas firefighter who pitched in to help, Muska said. Not all the bodies have been recovered but all are assumed dead.

Two volunteers who showed up to help fight the blaze are also missing and presumed dead, he said.

The rest of the fatalities include residents from nearby homes in the devastated four-block area of this small north-central Texas town 20 miles north of Waco, the mayor added.

"It's just a tragic, tragic incident," Muska said.

More than 160 others were injured, and about 75 homes and buildings -- including the junior high school and a nursing home -- were destroyed.

Emergency teams went house to house through mounds of debris Thursday in hopes of finding survivors of the earthquake-like blast at the West Fertilizer Co. that sent a ball of fire and burning embers into nearby home about 8 p.m. CT.

The blast, which rocked the ground with the force of a magnitude-2.1 earthquake, happened about a half mile from I-35 and could be felt as far as 45 miles away.

Officials said there was no initial indication that the blast was anything but an industrial accident, although agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on the scene investigating the explosion.

The facility, which receives fertilizer by rail and distributes it to local farmers, did not have sprinklers or fire safety barriers required by state law, an official said.

Waco police Sgt. William Patrick Swanton said earlier that three to five firefighters were still unaccounted for, but that one missing first responder had been located in a local hospital with "serious injuries."

"We risk our lives everyday, those firefighters knew what they were going into," Swanton said. "They went in there to save lives, and that's what they did. A few of them lost their lives in doing so."

As a storm front moved through the area Thursday morning, teams were carefully sifting through the charred remains of the explosion for survivors, looking under beds, inside collapsed closets, and rummaging through debris for any sign of life.

Swanton said that it was a good sign that emergency teams were still in a "search and rescue" mode because it indicated that they still hoped to find more survivors.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry called the devastating explosion "truly a nightmare scenario" for the small farming community. He declared a state of emergency for McLennan County and dispatched National Guard troops for assistance.

The governor also said that President Obama called him from Air Force One en route to Boston to offer federal assistance.

Earlier, Mayor Muska told reporters that his town of 2,800 people needs "your prayers."

Officials said it did not appear that the town was threatened by chemical fumes from the plant, which was still smoldering hours after the explosion.

Emergency teams had responded to a fire call at the plant at 7:29 p.m. CT. The explosion erupted 24 minutes later, as the firefighters, police and paramedics were battling the blaze and attempting to evacuate nearby residents.

"They were responding to the scene and were actively fighting the fire at the time the explosion occurred," Swanton said.

First responders to the West Rest Haven Nursing home, which was heavily damaged, removed

133 residents, many in wheelchairs.

Bill and Polly Killough had just sat down to watch TV when the explosion roared into their living room. The front door blew in and the windows exploded at the same time, followed by the roof collapsing and a thunderous boom, Polly Killough, 64, said.

Her first thought was: tornado. But after clawing out from under the debris and stepping outside, she saw no thunderclouds or storm.

"What the hell just happened?" she asked.

Around her, neighbors homes were stripped of siding, their roofs caved in and doors and windows blown in. The scene reminded her of TV images she'd seen from Iraq.

"Now I know what soldiers go through when they go through an [improvised explosive device]," she said. "In an instant, just total destruction."

In one video, posted on YouTube, a young girl, Khloey Hurtt, is taping the fire from about 300 yards away while sitting in a truck with her father, Derrick. The force of the blast knocks them both backward.

In the video, Khloey can be heard pleading with her father, "Please get out of here, please get out of here, Dad, please get out of here. I can't hear anything."

Derrick Hurtt later told NBC's Today show, "I'm pretty sure it lifted the truck off the ground. It just blew me over on top of her. It all happened so quick that things just kind of went black for a moment."

"The injuries that we are seeing are very serious,'' said Glenn Robinson, CEO of Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center. "There are a number of patients that will be going to surgery. ... It's a very, very unfortunate situation.''

Robinson said that 10 or 12 of the injured were in critical condition. Two people were in surgery as he spoke and two more were awaiting surgery, he said.

Robinson said an unknown number of people with minor injuries were being treated at a triage center set up by emergency medical personnel at a high school football field.

Swanton, who was one of the first officers on the scene, said the chaos and devastation was staggering.

"I've been policing for 32 years and seen some pretty rough stuff in that time," he said. "I've never seen anything of this magnitude."

The blast and ball of fire reduced a middle school to rubble and seriously damaged least 50 houses. A 50-unit apartment building looked like a "skeleton," according to one state trooper. Some structures as far away as a half-mile were destroyed.

Julie Zahirniako said she and her son, Anthony, had been playing at a school playground near the fertilizer plant when the explosion occurred. She was walking the track, he was kicking a football.

The blast threw her son 4 feet in the air, breaking his ribs. She said she saw people running from the nursing home and the roof of the school lifted into the sky.

"Hit the ground, hit the ground," Zahirniako heard a neighbor yell.

"The fire was so high," she said. "It was just as loud as it could be. The ground and everything was shaking."

The West Independent School District announced that it will be closed until Monday, when students will resume classes on the high school and middle school campus in Connally, about 10 miles from the blast zone. Other nearby districts are providing supplies, furniture, personnel and other needs for the displaced students.

Texas Trooper D.L. Wilson said the damage was comparable to the destruction caused by the April 19, 1995, bomb blast that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

Muska, who is a firefighter as well as mayor, urged residents to stay indoors as protection from the possibility of chemical fumes in the area.

Wilson said half the town had been evacuated due to damage or the threat posed by the fumes.

"When that north wind changes, we might have to evacuate the other side of town,'' Wilson said.

There were no immediate details on the number of people who work at the facility, which was cited by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in 2006 for failing to obtain or to qualify for a permit, the Associated Press reported. The agency acted after receiving a complaint in June of that year of a strong ammonia smell.

In 2001, an explosion at a chemical plant killed 31 people and injured more than 2,000 in Toulouse, France. The blast occurred in a hangar containing 300 tons of ammonium nitrate, which can be used for both fertilizer and explosives. The explosion came 10 days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S., and raised fears at the time it was linked. A 2006 report blamed the blast on negligence.